World History Tournament of Champions - Great End of the Year Activity!

As a middle school teacher, it can definitely be a challenge to keep middle schoolers engaged and on-task as the year comes to a close. I came up with this tournament bracket hoping that a little fun-spirited competition would help during the last week of school, and I was so glad that it did! This tournament is four days of students on-task and will always be my go-to activity during the last week of school!

It was so powerful going from me telling kids what was important to hearing them tell me what they felt was important.

Check Out My American History Tournament of Champions:

AMERICAN HISTORY TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

Please note - I have made this bracket fully editable for you with instructions, but you will need MS PowerPoint to open/edit the Tournament Bracket and MS Publisher to add/change possible contenders

I chose 100 people from World History that made a big impact - for good or for bad. Students will work in pairs to select a topic they felt had the greatest overall impact on our nation’s history during the time period we studied. Included is an NCAA March Madness style tournament bracket, which is fully-editable. Students will prepare a persuasive speech on why the class should vote for their topic. The first day of the actual tournament, during the Sweet 16 round, I have the class vote on each topic after the two groups present and then I tally the scores. The winners are announced and the Elite 8 bracket is established. On the second day of the actual tournament, the time for each speech is lessened which allows you to get through the Elite 8, Final Four, and possibly the championship round. This has been my Tuesday through Friday final activity of the year, which is during the last week before finals.

This tournament is SO much fun for us so I hope you and your students enjoy it as well!

Table of contents:

1 page: 100 Possible Choices (.pdf)

1 page: Tournament Bracket Categories (PowerPoint)

1 page: Editable Tournament Bracket (PowerPoint)

1 page: Tournament Time Line (.pdf)

1 page: How to Create a Bracket Instructions (.pdf)

6 pages: Instructions/Writing Pages (.pdf)

100 pages: Images/Names of Historic Figures (.pdf)

The Contenders:

Abraham Lincoln, Adolf Hitler, Akbar I, Akhenaten, Albert Einstein, Alexander Nevskii, Alexander the Great, Ashoka, Atahualpa, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Bartolome de Las Casas, Bartolomeu Dias, Benito Juarez, Benito Mussolini, Benjamin Franklin, Blaise Diagne, Cecil Rhodes, Charlemagne, Chiang Kai-shek, Christopher Columbus, Cixi, Confucius, Constantine, Darius I, Deng Xiaoping, Emiliano Zapata, Emilio Aguinaldo, Eva Duarte Peron, Faisal I, Ferdinand Magellan, Francisco Pizarro, Genghis Khan, George Washington, Getulio Vargas, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Haile Selassie, Hammurabi, Hatshepsut, Henry Morton Stanley, Henry the Navigator, Hernan Cortes, Herodotus, Hipolito, Irigoyen, Ibn Battuta, James Watt, Jawaharlal Nehru, Jesus, Jose Antonio Paez, Jose Maria Morelos, Josef Stalin, Joseph Brant, Josiah Wedgwood, Juan Peron, Karl Marx, Khubilai Khan, King Tutankhamun, Lazaro Cardenas, Leopold II, Li Shimin, Mahatma Gandhi, Mansa Kankan Musa, Mao Zedong, Margaret Sanger, Maximilien Robespierre, Menelik II, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Mikhail Gorbachev, Moctezuma II, Muhammad, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Napoleon Bonaparte, Nasir al-Din Tusi, Octavian, Osama bin Laden, Otto von Bismarck, Pancho Villa, Pericles, Peter the Great, Queen Elizabeth I, Ramses II, Richard Arkwright, Saddam Hussein, Salvador Allende, Shah Abbas I, Shi Huangdi, Siddhartha Gautama, Simon Bolivar, Socrates, Suleiman the Magnificent, Sun Yat-sen, Tecumseh, Theodor Herzl, Thomas Edison, Vladimir Lenin, Winston Churchill, Woodrow Wilson, Wright Brothers, Yamagata Aritomo, and Yongle

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History Word Walls

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